04/24/11 Day off!

4/24/11

Hi AJ!

We are going to put the questions in my email this week and Dad's going to help me think of them.

#1:  Did the Easter Bunny come and visit?

#2:  Do they have jelly beans and malted milk and marshmellow eggs and stuff like that there?

#3: Have you had any allergies in the Phillipines?  Do you get stuffy nose or itchy eyes or anything?

#4: Do you have any great dinner appointments that are good food and fun or is the food still stuff that you aren't used to yet?

#5: Does your companion do anything that annoys you other than making rice all the time? (Don't worry, we won't post the answer)

#6: Do you guys do splits with ward members or is that frowned upon now-a-days?

#7: Your mission mama has a picture of a kid drinking soda with a straw out of a plastic bag. Do you see that alot there? She said it was cheaper than buying a cup so lots of kids did it.

#8: Guess you aren't aware of gas prices too much but gas is up to almost $4 per gallon here again.  Does that affect you at all?  (Dallas filled up his first tank and it took $20 one day, waiting for his credit card and the next day we went and it to another $40, OUCH! --  he drives 22 miles per day to school/work)

#9: What do you hear about other areas of your mission.  Are some of the areas really remote and primitive?

Things are good here.  The kids had off Friday and tomorrow so we are working on keeping food on the table and constant entertainment!  Dad took off Friday and I had the afternoon off.  Tomorrow we both plan to work but maybe I can take a long lunch or leave early or something.  We'll see.  We made a list of things for the kids to do tomorrow -- weeding, bug spraying, cleaning the van.  Good times.  The kids are excited! (not)

The week has been busy and about the same as usual.  Katie is getting ready to have her first polynesian dance and she is pretty excited about it.  She had 2 hour practice last week and again this week to get ready.  It will be nice in about 3 weeks or so all the activities will be done and we won't have quite so much running around to do.  (course then summer camps start...!!!)

We played capture the flag last week with stockings filled with flour.  The kids wore dark colors and tried to hit each other with the flour when the crossed into the other guys territory.  They loved it.  Both the boys and the girls.  (And the little kids who came with their parents -- baby condie and bulow both had a blast hitting the stockings on the ground).  We made the peeps in nests too.  We had a great turn out and everybody seemed to have a great time.

Today we are going to Aunt Laura's house for dinner at 4:30.  Gma and pa are out of town for 10 days so we thought we were going to be on our own but Laura invited us over.  That was nice.  We are bringing desserts and a salad.  I think she's having ham and cheese sandwiches or something fairly easy.

It's hard to write a letter when you have "help".  Dallas and Dad were talking and I'm having a hard time concentrating!!!  It's quiet now but I've lost my train of thought!

Oh, one cool thing.  I seem to have my asthma under control.  Dr. Carter gave me a new inhaler awhile back and it's seemed to work miracles.  I haven't had an asthma attack in months.  It is really REALLY expensive ($218 per inhaler - $100 with insurance).  I was not going to take it anymore but I went to the Dr. this week and mentioned that I really liked it and asked if he had another sample.  He didn't but came back with a coupon for 1 free inhaler and $75 off all the others I buy this year.  With insurance that will make them only $25 each.  I also read somewhere that sometimes you can use these inhalers and build up your lung capacity and maybe not have to always use them.  So I'm hopeful!!!

Well not much else new.  Just trying to keep my head above water and get done all the things that need done!!!  Keep praying for more energy!!!

Love you lots and so happy for your good example.  You are an inspiration.  Keep up the good work and know that you are thought of, prayed for and loved!  Mom

04/17/11 Morning side

4/17/11

So another week has flown by.  For you too?  One of the speakers today said time flies when you are having fun...so I must be having the time of my life.  Is that how you feel?  It made me think about right after we had each of our babies.  The weeks prior to the birth seemed to take FOREVER and then the baby would arrive and MONTHS would fly by at record speed.  It seems like time just won't quit speeding up for me, so I must be pretty happy, huh!?  I really am.  Are you too?

I had to teach today in YW.  The lesson was on Priesthood in the family.  We had a decent turn out.  4 girls.  Course one of them is a "summer only" girl who I've never met before...so, whatever.  She was really nice and sweet but said she was going to Washington DC this summer and wouldn't be our summer girl this year.  Too bad.  I liked her. Anyway I talked about how when I was young I didn't have the priesthood in my home and never really experienced father's blessings or baptism or whatever done by my dad.  I told them about the first blessing I can remember receiving as a young girl and how amazing that experience was but then not experiencing anything like it again for many years.  Then I talked about how lucky I am to have the priesthood in my home now and how much more I appreciate having it now that I know what I was missing.  Some of the girls talked about their experiences with their dads and we talked about the qualities of a priesthood holder.  We talked about looking for those qualities in their future spouses and associating with people who had similar qualities.  Anyway it went pretty smoothly and made me realize how lucky I am (and you too) to have Dad as an example and that you boys can follow in his footsteps and be righteous priesthood holders in your life times.  Having to give lessons is always difficult for me but I think I survived ok.  Maybe if I keep trying it will be no big deal some day, eh?!

Yesterday was a full Saturday.  Our relief society did a "morning side" (never heard of that) from 7:30 - 8:30 a.m.  Elder Snow and his wife of the 70's came and spoke.  They talked about following Christ and it was really good.  They both quoted President Hinkley saying..."you are better than you think you are but not as good as you can become."  Or something like that.   The talks were very good and made you want to try harder.   After the morning side I went and got a bountiful basket and then ran over to spin class with Julene.  Came home and had breakfast and did the laundry.  Holly and Dad went to soccer while I ran to walmart.  Then me and the girls and the Riley twins went to the kite festival.  They had a blast.  They got kites and went "fishing" and bowling and ring toss.  We had a picnic in the park and then I took them swimming.  We watched Zoey yesterday for a little while too. Katie and Dad went to another soccer game.  Then we went out to Toquerville for Travis Taits wedding.  He married Kayli (Sherry Reeders girl).  She is pretty.  They've been dating a long time.  You probabaly know her.  Dad had to go out to the Stake dance to get Bryce around 11 p.m.  Whew.  Lots of Saturday!

Everything pretty much the same around here.  Grilled cheese on Sunday, pizza Monday etc.  I made too many sandwiches today --  thought of you...

Well Dad wants his turn at the computer so I guess I'll sign off now.  Love you lots.  Thanks for the sweet note last week.  Appreciated it.  Take care and keep working hard.  Love mom.

04/09/11 Easter!

4/9/11

Tomorrow is shaping up to be another busy day so I wanted to hurry and write before time gets away from me!

We are celebrating Easter tomorrow with the family because Grandma and pa will be on an elderhostel over Easter.  We were going to go the their house but the weather has been miserable and they are under snow.  We got lots of rain but they figure by tomorrow afternoon we should have sunshine and be at least semi-nice.  Maybe 60-65 degrees.

So we spent today doing lots of fun stuff to get ready for everybody.  We made these cute little peeps in a nest...it is peeps on top of chocolate covered pretzels (nest shaped) with jelly bean eggs around it.  We also made "bunny buns"...sweet bread shaped in bunny pattern.  They will be drizzled with powder sugar.

The boys helped spruce up the yard and we went and got 10 bags of wood chips and put them all over to cover the parts that had gotten bare.  We pulled up lots of weeds and swept and cleaned.  The back yard looks pretty good.

The girls went to the dentist yesterday and ...yeah!!! no cavaties!!!  And Katie didn't pitch a fit.  Whew.  She was brewing to and then I told her if she'd suck it up I'd take her for ice cream and the D.I. and she decided that was worth it.  They also got kids meals at Del Taco from the dentist so they were pretty spoiled rotten before it was all over.  The girls found matching (pink and white) poodles puppies at the DI for $1 each so they were in little girl heaven.

Dad's been busy working on his magazine which should be off to print before the end of next week.  I'm sure he'll tell you all about it.  Seems like we never see each other lately because he's off working and I'm working and doing YW and things are just non stop busy here.

I got made the deputy treasurer at the city (did I tell you that?) -- so I've been busy learning how to do deposits and all the combos for the safes and stuff.  Far as I can tell this is just an additional assignment w/o any compensation...but I think down the road once I get things figured out I might make a little more because of it.  We'll see.

Another frustrating week with YW...only 1 girl last Sunday.  Yikes.  And then Wednesday night we had only 1 member (the same one that came on Sunday) and 4 non members -- which is good that the non members are coming...but what the heck with the members?!  I sometimes wanna just say forget it...I'd rather being doing stuff with my family if no one cares anyway...but I need to just keep trying and just keep hoping and praying they'll start coming.  Who knows, maybe the non-members are really benefiting anyway.  I just am amazed at the lack of commitment to being at church and activities by our members.  We really do have some fun cool stuff coming up...hopefully they'll make it to girls camp and youth conference and it'll all be worth the huge amount of effort going into getting ready for both.  Wah wah wah.  Enough boo baby stuff.

How are things going for you?  Are you enjoying your new comp?  Saw the picture of you two together and I think I'm bigger than him.

Katie and Holly performed out at Tuacahn this week.  Dad went and watched...I had YW.  It was kind of a cold yucky sprinkly night but they survived and did a great job and dad said he enjoyed it.

Everything got cancelled this weekend...soccer and baseball.  It was strange having dad home on a friday night.  We went to Costco and dinner at regular time.  We haven't done that FOREVER!!!

Next week I have to teach the lesson in YW -- something about the Priesthood in families.  Always makes me nervous to teach but hopefully I'll find some stuff to make the lesson interesting.  I read it a couple of weeks ago and I didn't find it really interesting or exciting.  I'll have to read it again and try to get inspired!

Anyway...I got to still fold my laundry and have an early meeting tomorrow so I'd better sign off.  Tomorrow is fast sunday...due to conference last week.  We don't usually have meetings on fast sunday so it's kind of weird.

Take care and tell us all about your week.  Really enjoy hearing about your adventures!

Do you enjoy getting Sis W's letters?  And Taylor and Derrick?  Let me know what you think.  Sis W has had some pretty funny expriences, eh?!

Love you lots!!! Mom